Yahweh Sect Member Held In Murder

MIAMI -- Another member of the religious sect the Nation of Yahweh has been arrested on charges of murder and racketeering, the FBI said on Wednesday.

John W. Foster, 45, known as Enoch Israel, was arrested on Tuesday in Winston-Salem, N.C. He has been implicated in a 1981 decapitation murder in Miami, the FBI said.

Since November, 19 sect members, including their leader, Hulon Mitchell Jr., known as Yahweh Ben Yahweh, have been indicted and arrested for staging what prosecutors called a reign of terror involving racketeering, extortion and murder.

Sect members are scheduled to stand trial in Fort Lauderdale on May 20. At one time, the group had a massive presence in Miami.

Foster was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami in connection with the murder of Aston Green, as were 18 other Yahweh members.

The revised indictment also mentioned a new Yahweh member, Huram Israel, whose real name is unknown. Huram Israel is accused in the April 1986 stabbing death of Harold Barnett.